Tuesday, May 31, 2011

How to Critique a Painting

here are some ideas how to critique your own painting after you are working on it, or it is finished :

Although these suggestions will come in handy, remember that a critisim is subjective to the person personally. What you may like or dislike, can very well be different than another's opinion.

Step 1:

Lay aside the painting for at least a week. The longer you wait, the more details you'll catch in your critique. When evaluating the work of other artists, prepare a checklist to make sure you don't miss an important aspect of the painting .

Step 2

Assess your gut response to the picture. This guides your critique because, in the end, it's the most important thing about an art work. Accept that you ma ynot like the images but find other aspects of the work excellent.

Step 3

Spend a few minutes taking the picture in without judging. This is like reviewing the contents of a textbook before reading it. It heightens your awareness of the details and prepares you to examine each one to see how they all fit together.

Step 4

Identify the strongest areas of the painting. This gives you something positive to start with. That can be especially important when you're critiquing a friend's work.

Step 5

Consider the painting's title, if it has one. This helps in deciding if the artist managed to create unity between what was in his mind and what he's communicating in the picture.

Step 6

Notice how your eye travels across the canvas. A painting full of tiny details should make you pause slightly at each one. Long strokes and harmonious colors cause your gaze to sweep down the picture. Consider how this fits in with the subject matter.

Step 7

Concentrate on the color scheme. Consider the subject before deciding the colors clash. suffering , For instance: vivid reds, yellows and oranges stimulate rather than relax.